What are First Serial Rights?

The first goal of any writer or poet is to write, ideally something original in their voice that captures their readers. You can only capture readers’ minds or hearts if you publish and they can read your words. Luckily, thousands of literary outlets and journals exist to do just that and are eager for good content. When you first submit an original piece or poem and are selected, paid or not, they will require First Serial Rights.

Here’s a typical Term and Condition:

  “We are entitled to first serial and reprint rights. That is, we are allowed to be the first publisher of your work before the rights revert to you, and we are then allowed to republish your work if it is chosen for an award or an anthology. These publication rights extend to all formats (digital and print) and locations, and once your poem is accepted for an anthology, you agree it can be featured in our digital and print issues, which are sold to [publication name or org name] readers.”

By submitting, you are telling them they are the first to use your piece. Second, you are giving them the right to republish that piece. Sometimes it might say “First North American Serial Rights (FNASR)” meaning only pertaining to North America, but increasingly and with online publications and the internet, “world” is more common. In the example above “all formats and locations” means the world.

All writers or poets submitting their work to literary outlets or publications, whether print or digital/online, will have to agree to language similar to this in order to be published if selected. If you don’t agree, withdraw your submission, since it is unlikely the wording will change. This right of the publisher, “first serial and reprint rights” is always implied. It’s your job as the submitter to make sure there are limits when the publisher can issue your work, and for how long he holds the rights to do so. Generally, two years should be the limit. All rights revert to you (as in the example above), at some point, which should be clear.

During this time and afterward, it is not only courteous but accepted practice that if you submit the same piece to another publication; you state where and when it was first printed. This usually is done on the piece itself. Reprints of your work that previously appeared in another publication are “second serial rights.” These rights are nonexclusive, meaning you can submit or sell the piece to many publications at the same time.

In other words, your piece or poem is not “exclusive” to the publication that first printed it. If they ask for that, consider what that means to you and if you agree. Many publications accept reprints, so think of that too.

Other rights to consider are “simultaneous rights” that give you the ability to sell work to publications that don’t have overlapping circulations, and “all rights,” which means you sell all the rights to your work to the buyer, and you never get another nickel for the piece, no matter how many times they publish it.

One thing. You always own the copyright in the piece, and as the author that always remains with you.

One more thing. Don’t plagiarize.